This invention is in the field of toy apparatus and method operable by a child for making vacuum formed articles. Typically a thin sheet of plastic such as colored styrene or metalized poly-vinylchloride is placed over or adjacent a mold of a predetermined shape; the plastic sheet is heated until suitably softened, and then a vacuum is applied through the mold and to the sheet, thereby drawing the sheet to conform to the mold's shape. Finally, the vacuum is released, the formed sheet is separated from the mold, and the child has made a vacuum formed article which may be a complete toy in itself or may be a component of a toy. A toy such as this may provide very significant educational and amusement type benefits.
What must be appreciated here is that this is essentially an industrial process normally conducted by trained adults in a factory setting with all manner of safety procedures and apparatus operators able and willing to follow safety instructions. Ideally, children would be so carefully supervised that dangers from such toys would be insignificant. Unfortunately, children may not be so well supervised, children tend to experiment or do the opposite of what they are told, and injuries may result. Also state and federal statutes are placing higher responsibility on manufacturers to refrain from selling dangerous toys and to pay the consequences of injuries.
Industrial level safety features are either inappropriate for children and/or are so expensive that toys cannot possibly have these features and be marketable at a reasonable price.
The present invention seeks to provide totally appropriate safety features primarily using the apparatus' own structure so that the cost is not significantly increased. Also, this apparatus permits the child operator to be able to safely witness the vacuum forming stage. This has been achieved as shown in the appended drawings and described below.